Last night a couple of pimply faced tie wearing teenaged boys rang my doorbell. I answered it, and they immediately began by saying, "We're christian missionaries from..."It was at that point that I cut them off by saying, "We're not interested, but thank you." No problems, no argument. It was actually kind of sad to see lives destroyed so young.
This reminded me of a discussion I was involved in a couple of days ago. We were discussing the major monotheistic religions, when one of the folks there says, "My husband doesn't believe in any of it." And one of the other people says, oh so solemnly, "Not believing is also a form of belief". That's when I spoke up. I basically said, it's not the same thing as believing in a virgin birth, that the earth was created in six days, and that the universe is only a few thousand years old. The difference between most religious people and atheists, is that the "true believers" think they have all the answers already, so there's no reason to look any further. Why seek out any more answers, when it's all there in one handy little book? But if your god is telling you to be pro-life, but it's okay to kill everyone who disagrees with you, it's time to rethink. If your god justifies stealing land that people have lived on for thousands of years, he's an asshole. If your belief system says to forgive child molesters, fuck you. If you take seriously the word of someone who preaches peace and tolerance, but had no problem being on the CIA payroll, and whose system upheld slavery, then you're an idiot.
I actually have no problem with religious people who are open to real discussion, and who want to alleviate the great suffering of the masses for real, and not just through acceptance of some divine word.
Good bye.
